Sony Discontinues Shipments of PlayStation Vita TV in Japan

Sony added to the official Japanese listing of the PlayStation Vita TV, or PlayStation TV as it’s called in the west, the label “出荷完了,” which translates to “End of Shipments.” This means that shipping of the home console spin-off of the PS Vita will be discontinued in the country.

This applies to both the stand-alone PS Vita TV and to the “Value Pack” with DualShock 3 and memory card.

PlayStation Vita TV, or PlayStation TV, as it was called in the west, was never a successful product in Japan. The latest known numbers by Media Create, dated January 3rd, indicate its lifetime sales in the country at 185,452 since its launch on November 14th, 2013. The firm stopped providing separate numbers since, possibly knowing of the upcoming discontinuation.

While the concept was certainly interesting (and I personally play my PS Vita TV more than my portable Vita), sales were definitely hindered by the fact that developers often launched their games without PS Vita TV compatibility, due to the necessity of implementing dedicated controls that didn’t make use of the touch screen and rear pad.

This does not mean that the console will disappear from the Japanese shelves immediately, as it might take a while for stocks to be completely gone, but only four units remain at the moment of this writing on Amazon Japan for the Value Pack, and five of the stand-alone version, while at the popular retailer Yodobashi Camera both versions are already completely sold out. If you want the lovely white version as a memento, you may want to get one while you can.

At the moment we don’t know if the discontinuation will extend to the west any time soon, and we’ll let you know if Sony makes an announcement on that.

Hailing from sunny (not as much as people think) Italy and long standing gamer since the age of Mattel Intellivision and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Definitely a multi-platform gamer, he still holds the old dear PC nearest to his heart, while not disregarding any console on the market.
RPGs (of any nationality) and MMORPGs are his daily bread, but he enjoys almost every other genre, prominently racing simulators, action and sandbox games.
He is also one of the few surviving fans of the flight simulator genre on Earth.